On Practicing Guitar

This past Sunday I had two gigs, a happy occurrence. It was a bit of a trial, because I was fighting bronchitis and had to sing lead and harmony at the first one and lead at the second one. Definitely an experience. The first one was with my friend Ron at HiFi with our new Gram Parsons Tribute project, and the second was at the Wild Horse Tavern with my soon to be renamed blues outfit.

I woke up late and started to get some practicing/warm-up in. On gig days, I’m always reminded of a quote from Rick Derringer that I read in a Guitar Player Magazine interview many years ago. He said, “Although I may practice for only fifteen minutes four times during the day, I’m going to have to play really well for two hours that night.” I interpret this in two ways. He doesn’t want to get tired from over-practicing. Also, the second half of the sentence suggests that he intends to refrain from any extracurricular activities that might get in the way.

So, as per custom and with the time I had, I did two twenty minute warm ups, playing lead, a few of the blues tunes that we would play that night and a couple of run throughs of “That’ll Never Happen No More,” the most challenging piece I’ve been playing lately, a fingerpicked number by Blind Blake/Hot Tuna. Around 5pm, I headed over to Ron’s where we ran through the country set. It went well, one of those lucky gig day omens.

The show at HiFi (top) went smoothly and there was a nice crowd, mainly friends of the organizers and house band, a friendly and supportive group, taking up most of the seats. About five of them were sound men, so, hah hah – the sound was great and it was easy to set up. Ron let me use his Martin D-28 Herringbone acoustic, which was a treat. While I was singing the Advil Cold and Sinus plus the strong coffee I got at the 7/11 across the street was making my hair stand up on end, but I was able to sing OK, it was fun but a bit hair-raising, ha ha.

I had to run out of there while the next performer was on, a kind of obscurity driven, hipster singalong, very nice. The cab ride uptown depleted all the money I would make at the Wild Horse, no problem; I forwent the free beer, sob.

The show there (above) was pretty good. I started to lose my voice about two thirds of the way. The crowd thinned out from the previous band almost immediately. We did some interesting tunes including a cover of “Come Back Baby” by Hot Tuna (there are many versions, I think it’s basically a Ray Charles song) which I have always loved. A major plus was the improved lighting at the venue. We’ll be back on December 13^th.